How To: Set Up a Custom Domain and Subdomain

WARNING: THESE STEPS MUST BE FOLLOWED EXACTLY IN ORDER FOR YOUR CUSTOM DOMAIN TO WORK PROPERLY. IF YOU DEVIATE FROM THESE STEPS YOUR DOMAIN MY NOT WORK PROPERLY AND IT CAN CAUSE ISSUES WITH CUSTOMERS WHO ARE ATTEMPTING TO PURCHASE ART FROM YOUR WEBSITE.

Want a professional to do the work for you? Check out our Professional Services if you'd like ArtStorefronts to do the heavy lifting for you!

You need to own a domain name before you can do this. We don't sell them, but if you do a Google search for buy cheap domain you should see a deal for ~ $5 or less! For easy set up and great support, we recommend GoDaddy.

If you already own a domain name, fantastic! We accept all domains (.com, .co.uk, .au, .nz, etc), and it doesn't matter where you purchased it (usually, that is!).

Looking for a guide for your specific Domain Host? You can find them in our Additional Resources Section at the bottom of this article and see if your host is listed there.

Once you own a domain, please follow these steps:

Quick Domain Setup - General

1. Login to your domain registrar's website.

2. Locate where you can edit your DNSzone, also referred to as Zone File, for your domain.

3. Add a "CNAME" record, where "www" points to www.artstorefronts.com

4. Save the added record.

5. Set up domain forwarding. In order for both "www.yourdomain.com" as well as "yourdomain.com" to work when typed in the address bar of your browser, you'll need to forward "yourdomain.com" to "www.yourdomain.com". Some domain registrars do not offer domain forwarding, in which case we would advise to transfer your domain to one that does. GoDaddy is great in this regard. Please click here for more information on this process.

6. Login to your Art Storefronts account, and click on the Website you would like to add this custom domain to.

7. Click on the Site Address tab.

8. Click to Add New custom domain. A window will appear, type in your domain name with the 'www' in front.

Quick Subdomain Setup - General

1) Add a "CNAME" (such as shop or gallery) record that points to www.artstorefronts.com

2) Click on the Site Address tab within Art Storefronts.

3) Set your domain to shop.yourdomain.com

That's all!.

It usually takes somewhere between 4-24 hours before your domain registrar completes your request. There is nothing we can do to speed this up, we simply wait until your domain reaches our servers.

You will know once your custom domain is ready by typing in your domain 'www.yourdomain.com' in the address bar of your browser. Your Art Storefront website should load successfully.